If you’re just starting your search for a diamond ring in Littleton, CO, you’re probably wondering what kind of stone might be best for their perfect ring. While every person’s taste is different, the main methods for grading a stone — color, cut, clarity and carat — are always the same.
What does sometimes change is a diamond’s origin, as more consumers are opting to purchase lab grown diamonds for their rings. Modern technology has made the creation of diamonds in a lab easier than ever, resulting in beautiful rings without the difficulty and cost of mining them. If you’ve never considered a lab-created diamond, here are a few things you should know about them.
They’re Virtually Identical to Mined Diamonds
One common concern with customers who have never considered buying a lab grown diamond is the idea that they’re buying a fake, similar to cubic zirconia. Nothing could be further from the truth, as lab-created diamonds and cubic zirconia have almost nothing in common besides being colorless.
The biggest difference between the two are in their composition, because diamonds made in a lab are made of pressed carbon, exactly like a naturally-grown diamond. Cubic zirconia, on the other hand, has no carbon whatsoever, resulting in a soft, weak material that is easily damaged.
Real diamonds are the strongest material in the world, and lab created diamonds are every bit as strong as a natural diamond. The only difference is that lab grown diamonds are created by being pressed in a controlled environment that simulates what diamonds go through over a process of several thousands of years in the earth.
With modern technology’s advances and scientific methods backing the formation of lab created diamonds, the result is a gem that looks and has the same composition of a mined diamond. Only an experienced jewelry expert can ever tell that a lab created diamond wasn’t mined from the earth, and only by using specially designed equipment. With the naked eye, it’s impossible for the average person to tell a difference between mined or lab grown diamonds in Littleton, CO. By contrast, any experienced jeweler can easily tell the difference between a diamond and a fake such as cubic zirconia.
They’re Cheaper than Mined Diamonds
So if there’s no difference between a lab created diamond and a mined diamond, why is a lab grown diamond roughly 30% cheaper than a mined diamond? Simple: it’s much easier to create a diamond in a lab than to pull one out of the earth. Natural diamonds are prized for both their beauty and their scarcity, but only the former applies to lab created diamonds. Growing a diamond in a controlled lab setting isn’t cheap by any means, but it’s a lot more reliable and a lot easier to grow a diamond in that setting than to mine one out of the earth and cut it to the customer’s specifications.
However, once a lab grown diamond is created, there’s no difference in the inspection and preparation process between it and a natural diamond. Every lab created diamond goes through the same intense process of cutting it, polishing it and inspecting it for any flaws that might affect its overall grades. The only reason for the price difference is because it’s simply not possible to run out of lab grown diamonds, whereas natural diamonds could someday disappear from the earth.
They’re Subject to the Same Grading Levels
If you’ve ever looked at diamonds before, you know that each diamond is graded for color and clarity, with white, clear diamonds getting the highest possible score. Lab grown diamonds are also graded on the same scale, and there’s no difference in how strict the graders are between lab created diamonds and natural diamonds.
Just like with a natural diamond, it’s going to be next to impossible to find a lab grown diamond that’s either Flawless or Internally Flawless unless you have a very large budget for your ring. Most likely, you’re going to be purchasing a VVS1 or VVS2 diamond, or you might even go down to a VS1 depending on what matters to you and the person you’re purchasing it for.
That’s because lab grown diamonds are going to have the same kinds of flaws that natural diamonds have, as there is no way to scientifically guarantee that a diamond will be perfect in either nature or in the lab. That’s another big difference between lab grown and cubic zirconia: a diamond grown in the lab isn’t made to look perfect. It’s made to create a stone that is structurally the same as a natural diamond and has the same beauty and value.
They Do Take Time to Grow
Lab grown diamonds don’t happen overnight. These diamonds do happen much faster than in nature, but they’re still going to take a little while to create in a controlled situation. When you order a lab created diamond in Littleton, CO, you can expect an experienced jeweler to take a minimum of seven to 10 days from the time that you place an order for a lab grown diamond.
If you try to push a diamond any faster than that, you’ll end up cracking the diamond to the point where it’s completely worthless, so it’s important that the process has enough time to properly take place. Of course, a week to two weeks is much quicker than thousands of years, but it’s still a necessity to plan ahead when you order lab grown diamonds for a piece of jewelry.
At Matheu’s Fine Watches & Jewelry, we understand the process of creating a diamond in a lab as well as what goes into creating a unique piece of jewelry for a special person. Whether you choose a natural diamond or lab grown diamonds for your piece of jewelry, we’re here to make sure that the process is done properly so that you obtain a diamond to treasure for years to come. Contact our team today to order!
